A Thousand Brilliant Shadows
by mystic rainman
Summary: Voldemort overlooks an old prejudice just once to adopt a muggle child. And changes History. In a tale spanning across two generations, see the rise of the Heir, and Harry Potter, as he battles to fulfill his destiny. AU.
1. Prologue

Author's note: This is my first bit of fanfiction, so please go easy on me. Special thanks to my awesome beta-reader, Slytherin's Silver Dragon!! Please Read and Review!!

*

Prologue: The Vault

Some Date, early 1981

A full moon loomed over the silhouette of the building. A dog howled somewhere down the decrepit side-lane. Rats scampered through the open drains. A lone security guard was snoring in the main door post, the wizard wireless humming in the background.

The blond haired man smiled. It was his first real mission.

"I will not fail you, master."

He had a dozen other men behind him, all of them wearing dark hooded robes similar to his.

Malfoy took a breath, removed a wooden stick from beneath his robes, and then turned to the two people immediately behind him.

"Crabbe, Goyle, I don't want you to ruin this so listen carefully. Go down this street & destroy all the shops. Burn them, blow them up, I don't care. Just make sure nothing can be salvaged once you're done with the place. Kill anyone who gets in your way. Leave no trace, no witness. I will be entering the Main Lab. I will meet you here in exactly half an hour. By then, I should have the documents. Don't be late," Malfoy added with a slight sneer.

"Nott, Snape, McAvoy, make sure these two don't blunder up again. The rest of you, follow me."

*

"Snape! Snape! I'm outnumbered here! Where the heck are you?" Malfoy swore into the twin snake logo on his robe.

Malfoy was battling three guards at once, his wand moving all around him. A green light flashed past him, on both sides, miraculously missing him. The two guards slumped on the floor, lifeless. Snape moved swiftly past Malfoy to take on the guards Nott was battling.

Malfoy was bent over, breathing heavily. A bright orange stream whizzed past him. He knew he should be grateful Snape was with him on his mission. He was loathe to admit it, but he knew how much better Snape was at dueling than him. "Damn it!" he swore under his breath.

Suddenly the logo on his robe started to glow. "Shit," Malfoy swore again.

"Nott, cover me!"

Nott, now freed of his enemies by Snape, moved to give cover to Malfoy, as Malfoy proceeded to the street corner.

"Yes, my Lord"

"Is it over yet?" a cold voice hissed at the other end.

A short silence ensued.

"Do not tell me you couldn't even do this simple task I gave you, Lucius", the voice hissed.

"Its not a problem, my Lord. I'll return with the documents within five minutes"

"Remember Lucius, I do not like to wait. If it takes any more than five minutes, I will be most," the voice paused for a moment at this, "displeased."

A cold sweat broke up the blond man's forehead. "Five minutes, my Lord" he repeated.

"Snape, Nott, recon!"

The two men hurried to Malfoy, their wands a continuous blur as they fended off their enemies.

"What?" snapped Snape, already irritated with Malfoy. "We should have finished this by now. Why are we still here?"

"Because I was unable to break into the vault," Malfoy said.

"I'm not surprised," Snape sneered.

"This is not the time for this!" Malfoy snapped. "We need to get into the vault right now!" He gave a pointed look to the other two.

"Right." Nott spoke for the first time that night "You and Snape lead, I'll cover. We'll combine our powers to break the seal"

"Right", Malfoy spoke before walking towards the staircase.

A flight of stairs later saw them outside a plain, metallic door. All three of them pointed their wands towards it and bright yellow jets of light burst from the tips, blasting the door open.

Snape stepped ahead into the room. A plaque, labeled 'Gene Synthesis' greeted him. As the dust cleared, it became evident that the entire room was totally empty. Even the walls were bare.

Nott was the first to speak. "Where the hell are the documents?"

Movement in a corner of the room alerted Snape. He placed a finger on his lips then pointed towards the direction of the noise. The three started walking towards the corner.

"What the-"

*

"My Lord, we have an...er..." Malfoy tugged at his collar, "development. There are no documents here at the Vault."

"What? That is impossible"

"I am sorry , my Lord, but what I say is the truth. The vault is completely bare. However, we do have something else here, something far more interesting, master"

"Pray tell me what it is," a cold breath whispered near Malfoy's ears.

Goosebumps rose on his arms as Malfoy struggled to compose his fear at surprise at his master's arrival beside him.

"Pray tell me what it is, that I'll find more interesting that those documents," Voldemort repeated.

Snape stepped through the doorway and bowed low. Voldemort looked once at him, then turned & walked into the vault. In front of him was a small glass paneled case. A number of tubes snaked out from all sides only to be swallowed by the adjacent wall. A baby was sleeping peacefully inside.

"I've opened the top of the case, my Lord," Nott said.

Voldemort looked at the infant.

Suddenly the child opened her eyes. Voldemort and the child looked steadily at one other.

"Avada Kedavra!" hissed Voldemort suddenly. A bright flash of green light burst forth from his wand towards the girl.

Voldemort put his wand back inside his robes. He waited till the case emptied of the green light. Then he turned towards Malfoy.

"Its time to leave, Lucius. Our work here is done."

A wide eyed Malfoy picked up the baby & followed his master.

A cackle of baby laughter was heard as they left the room.

*


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I own none of the recognizable characters, we all know it all belongs to JKR.

*

**Chapter 1**

Several pops were heard, as the four remaining deatheaters apparated into the shadowy corner of a deserted street. Without wasting a moment, they started walking.

A lamp illuminated a small part of the cobbled pathway, flanked by rundown buildings. McAvoy raised his eyes towards the street-sign brought into focus via the dimming bulb.

Hilder Street.

The men turned left & continued walking. Rows of decrepit buildings had given way to dried up trees. None of them bore a leaf. The full moon shone harshly on the lifeless branches; their slight creaking sounds the only ones permeating the silent night.

Malfoy shifted the small bundle of cloths from one arm to the other. His face scrunched up in disgust at holding the baby.

_Filthy child!_

When Voldemort had abruptly cast the killing curse on the child, he hadn't been too surprised. In fact, he was rather pleased. But, when it survived the curse, he was shocked, to say the least.

_Un-natural muggle child. No child is supposed to survive a curse by the Dark Lord, especially **that** one! It is simply... impossible. _

"Abomination!" spat Malfoy.

His three companinons paid no heed to his outburst. McAvoy led them right to the end of the street. He stood by the last unlit lamp-post. Then he raised his wand & touched the lamp-post with its tip.

"Revelio!"

A small wisp of blue light travelled up the lamp-post towards the bulb. As it connected, a ripple of soft blue light flew away from it in all directions.

"This way," McAvoy said.

The four turned towards the outline of a gate, illuminated by the trickles of light still hanging in the air.

"Augustine." McAvoy said, and stepped across the gate. He stopped for a moment, waiting for the rest of the group. When Nott had also stepped inside the gate, he muttered "Finite Incantatem."

The gate's outline vanished. McAvoy turned, and started walking.

A four storied castle loomed ahead of him, its stoned walls gleaming under the moonlight. Its four corners were marked by four turrets, the opposite ones connected by arches rising just above the roof.

As they neared the castle, a couple of shadows flew out of the topmost windows of the north turret. Snape stopped and turned his head to see the creatures flying in a wide circle and then towards them. Pushing his foreboding feelings aside, he continued walking.

The temperature dropped several degrees as the three Dementors flew down towards the path. They stopped right in front of the group.

The baby, which had been deathly silent through the trip from the Vault, suddenly started crying at the top of its lungs. Snape turned towards Malfoy, who looked as if he'd like nothing better than to feed the child to the cloaked figures in front of them.

As if hearing his very thoughts, one of the Dementors drew a rattling breath and swooped towards Malfoy. McAvoy pulled the sleeve up over his arm, revealing a skull with a snake for a tongue, tattooed in black.

"We serve the same master," he whispered.

The dementor, who was bending its head towards the bawling child, stopped. It turned its head towards McAvoy. The rest of the deatheaters had also pulleed up their sleeves, the Dark Marks glinting on their skin.

The three dementors swooped on the marks and then flew back up the tower. As the adrenaline left their blood, Nott and Malfoy suppressed their shudders.

Snape arched an eyebrow towards McAvoy, who, in reply to his silent question, turned and resumed walking. The baby had gone back to being silent again.

*

Voldemort sat on his chair in his study, his face serious. A five hundred year old mahogany desk stood before him, a few papers stacked neatly on one side. Serpents were carved deep into the edges of the desk, their eyes glinting like diamonds under the light of the fire crackling in the hearth.

The presence of that child had presented new problems to his plans. One of his spies in the Ministry had informed him of some secret project undergoing between the Muggle government & the Ministry. At first he had scoffed at the idea, but a few doses of the Cruciatus had confirmed that the spy wasn't lying. Apparently, there were a select group of muggle officials who were aware of the magical community. They were high level scientists who were heavily involved in finding out what exactly makes magical people different from non-magical ones.

Voldemort, of course, immediately realized the potential advantages of such research in his hands. If he knew what made magic run in his veins, and not in the common, dirty muggles, he could definitely find out the way to enhance his magical capacity, could he not? After all, if you have knowledge about the source of magic, what is there to prevent him from tapping into it for more?

The spy had been useful, Voldemort mused. He even knew the exact location of the warehouse where the laboratory was hidden and had found out the ministry was appointing its own people, instead of letting the British Government guard the building. This had disappointed Voldemort slightly; the thought of slaughtering muggles was much more satisfying.

Yesterday, he had told a group of his followers to raid the building and come back with the research documents. He had put Malfoy in charge of the raid due to some very specific reasons. He knew Snape & McAvoy were better duelers and magically much more powerful than Malfoy. But both were half-bloods and he explicitly needed to show favouritism towards pure blooded families. And Malfoy's gold funded a majority of his activities. Showing faith, even though it being pretence, was necessary.

Pushing his chair slightly back, Voldemort got up and walked towards the lone window of the room. His eyes scanned the open grounds in front of his castle. He saw his four deatheaters materializing through the main gate. As they started walking up the stone path, three of his dementors flew to meet them. A child's wailing was heard over the slight whistling of the wind.

The _muggle_ child.

Even the thought of having it inside his home brought such hatred in his mind. But he knew nothing else could be done. The child was special – there was no doubt about that. Survival beyond the killing curse was unprecedented.

Perhaps he'll let some of _his_ brilliant minds work on it. The thought of certain 'experiments' brought a twisted smile to his visage.

The four deatheaters had reached the gate of the castle. Voldemort spared one last look at the quartet, then turned away from the window.

His thoughts back on the child, he wondered about the moment when he had looked into its eyes. He was a great judge of people. He took pride in the fact that he could judge the capabilities of a person through a sinlge look. Of course, legimency helped.

When he looked into the child's eyes, he realized that this child promised great power. One look, and he knew, that this child, this muggle _filth_, could even be more powerful than him.

For a moment, this surprised him, even caused a tiny bit of fear inside him. But then he questioned himself, what is left of him to conquer in this life? What will make him rise above the rest?

He knew the answer of course; it was his sole purpose in life.

Immortality.

And so, he had taken a decision.

And he had raised his wand.

*

McAvoy led his three companions through into the main hall of the castle. Torches sporting green flames lined the stone walls, casting irregular shadows along the uneven stones and faintly lighting the rest of the massive hall. Black cloaked deatheaters, all with their hoods over their heads, were standing silently along the walls.

The sound of their steps sounded unnatural in the silence. The four stopped slightly in front of a magnificent throne-like chair, situated at the end of the hall. Malfoy walked towards the cloaked figure at one end of the line. After a hurried conversation, he passed the child to that figure and stepped back beside Snape.

It didn't take long before Voldemort came walking from the stairs. Upon seeing him, all present fell to their knees, a murmur of 'My Lord' rippling through the crowd.

Voldemort walked to the only chair in the room & sat down gracefully. A casual wave of his hand and fire burst upon torches situated overhead, bathing the previously dark room with light.

"Report, Lucius."

"My lord, our contingency had twelve people. Eight fell, four remained. Unfortunately, there were no prisoners." Malfoy wanted to add "_besides the baby_" but decided against it. "Presence of research documents at the warehouse, although earlier indicated, could not be substantiated."

Voldemort looked at the four deatheaters kneeling before him. They were some of his most loyal supporters, yet their foray today was a disaster. A mistake, he told himself, which cannot be overlooked.

"Crucio!"

Blood curdling screams erupted from the four, echoed eerily by the bare walls. No one in the lines moved a muscle. After a minute of holding the curse, Voldemort released it.

Their bodies stopped twitching in agony, the four scrambled to their feet. But they remained bowed.

"You know the reason why you received that treatment, don't you, my deatheaters," Voldemort hissed.

"Yes, My Lord"

"You are most merciful, My Lord"

"Where is the child?" Voldemort enquired, his interest in torturing waning slightly.

The figure carrying the child moved one step forward, out of the line. The hood was dropped to reveal a flawless face with platinum blonde hair. Narcissa Malfoy walked slowly forwards, towards where her husband stood.

"My Lord," she said, while bending down again with the bundle of robes.

"Bella!"

The figure on the left of the space previously occupied by Narcissa, walked confidently up to where Narcissa was standing. Bellatrix removed her hood and bowed low.

"Your orders, My Lord."

"It is time you raised a child, Bella. I have chosen a heir."

*

**A/N**: special thanks to my beta Slytherin's Silver Serpent and the wonderful reviewers!! I hope a little of the reasons why Voldemort decided to put the AK on the child is clear.. Of course, more details will be revealed in the following chapters :) Please Review!!


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